Estienne, Robert

Dictionarium, seu Latinae Linguae Thesaurus. Editio secunda. Paris: Robert Estienne, 20 June 1543



3 volumes, folio (15 x 10 in.; 380 x 254 mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, printed in two columns, large white-on-black criblé initials; some light scattered spotting, a few tears in colophon leaf mended affecting a few letters. Old vellum with yapp edges, gold-stamped leather title label on spine; soiled, a few stains and mends.

The Eudist Congregation de Jesus et Marie, maison de Luçon (with their library stamp on first leaf of each vol.) — Elizabeth Armstrong (bookplate)

Renouard, 55-57, no. 7; Schreiber, Estiennes 68; see PMM 62 and E. Armstrong, Robert Estienne: Royal Printer (1954), 22

Definitive edition of Robert Estienne's "greatest monument of Latin scholarship" (Armstrong), the work which established him as the first scientific lexicographer. "Unlike any of his predecessors Estienne based his vocabulary only on the best classical sources ... and further illustrated the meaning of words and idioms by references to reputable modern authorities, e.g., Valla, Erasmus, Linacre, Alciati and [his friend] ... Guillaume Budé" (Schreiber).

Acceding to the demands of his customers, he compiled his own Latin dictionary which appeared in a rough outline in 1531, and again enlarged in 1536. The present edition, called "editio secunda" on the title, perhaps because he did not consider the 1531 as a finished work, has grown to more than twice its original size. It remains to this day the only complete work of its kind in the field; "no other work has yet replaced or surpassed it, since the Thesaurus begun in German in 1894 is still far from completion" (Schreiber).